BEIT IBA, Thursday 15 April 2004 PMObservers: Naomi L., Nora R., Dafna B. (reporting) and Tanya, a guest from Boston colour = red>We did not encounter any unannounced road blocks.The procedures at the checkpoint: N. was not around (he arrived later and then disappeared ). The checkpoint commander, A., was very problematic, did not cooperate with us and maltreated the Palestinians. When we arrived there were masses of people and the pressure from both sides continued for about an hour-and-a-half and then eased. When the pressure was at its highest, the woman soldier decided to take a break and in front of all the tense, waiting people, she sat down and read the newspaper. Let them wait. One of the soldiers even reproached her for her behaviour. Afterwards she chomped away on cookies, and again — in front of all the waiting Palestinians. She displayed a completely appalling lack of tact and consideration for others. Detainees: When we arrived there were about 20 detained Palestinians. The number rose (to 35) and then fell again. Most were not detained more than two hours. When we left (18:30) there were still more than 20 left waiting to get their documents back [Palestinian males aged between 16 and 35 experience great difficulty in moving from place to place even within the Palestinian Authority territory. Unless they have hard-to-get permits, their ID cards are taken from them at checkpoints and sent for cross-checking against lists of suspects compiled and held by the Israeli security services– Shin Bet ; until they are cleared, they are held at the checkpoints and this may take several hours]. We asked O. to intervene. He promised to take care of it and after a few minutes he disappeared — a phone call to him confirmed that he had left. There was no one left to talk to, but as we left we saw the soldiers going up to the detainees with a pile of ID cards. One of the detainees told us that last Thursday he and another 30 detainees were at the checkpoint until almost midnight. After that, since they couldn’t get home, people from the nearby village of an-Naqura offered them places to sleep at their homes. It is perhaps of interest to note that our informant told us he works at Nablus Municipality in the water department , has been married just two weeks, and earns NIS800 only, most of which he spends on food and lodgings in Nablus. He stays there all week, and goes home every Thursday and almost every week he finds himself detained at the checkpoint, as he was this week too. O. was very helpful and very efficient in processing people wanting to go through the checkpoint. The problem was with A., who frequently flouted O.’s orders to release detainees. The following incidents were noteworthy:A man, in great pain with some back problem, was trying, on a written doctor’s referral, to get to Nablus to have an x-ray. O. helped him and he was released to go on his way after half-an-hour.But then there was a lorry driver who had a load of gas canisters: despite having all the necessary permits, he had been detained since 10:00 — as A. put it, “for educational purposes”. According to A., “I tell him to sit down – he doesn’t. I tell him to move, he doesn’t. Who is he to fix the rules?. He can sit here for another hour. That way he’ll learn!” O. ,too, wouldn’t help, because the man was not , as he put it, “disciplined”!However, O. did help a brother and sister detained after returning from donating blood for their sick mother. ID cards had returned a few times after being checked. But A. saw a man to whom he was supposed to return a card and sent him back: ” Sit down quietly for another half hour. And then you’ll go through” Why? Just because!One of the detainees was not there when they returned his ID card ( according to him he had gone off to drink some water , but what does it matter?) As a punishment A. made him sit down for another hour and it was only because N. happened to walk by that he was finally released.In the few minutes during which we managed to get hold of N., he helped us a lot and was a breath of fresh air in this terrible place. It was a pity that most of the time we and the Palestinians were stuck with A.The passage of medical staff :An ambulance with three doctors and three nurses, en route to their shift at the Nablus hospital were stopped , and A. refused at first to let them through, because, he claimed, only three people may to travel in an ambulance. At last he decided to let them pass through, but said that in future he would not allow more than three in an ambulance. I filed a complaint with Physicians for Human Rights.A doctor from Nablus on his way to Azzun complained that he waits for innumerable hours at the checkpoint every time he has to visit a patient. Today , too, he had to wait for an hour-and-a-half in the long line of cars which progressed only painfully slowly.